What You Should Know About CIPC

It was established by the Companies Act, 2008 (Act No. 71 of 2008) as a separate legal entity to work as part of government within the public administration, but as an institution outside the public service.

That was back in May 2011 – when the Companies Act came into effect.

And before that, CIPC was called CIPRO.

CIPC is not only responsible for company registration, but also co-operatives and Intellectual Property Rights (trademarks, patents, designs and copyright) and maintenance of that.

I won’t get into more details about CIPC, but If you’re interested to learn more about its functions, click here.

Now you know about the CIPC, let jump into the details of how to register a company via their online platform.

Shall we?

Step #1: How to Claim a Free CIPC Account and Get A Username

The first step is to get your unique CIPC username. To do that, you need to create a free account.

Step #1: Choose the company type

On the field titled TYPE OF COMPANY, choose the company you’re registering. Choose private company (if you’ll be running the company for profit) or choose NPC – Non-profit company.

For the sake of simplicity, I will cover PTY LTD in this article.

Choosing a company type

Once you chose the company type, you then have to enter details of directors of the company.

If you’re the only one forming the company, enter your ID number, click the GREEN + button and click CONTINUE.

If you’re not the only director of the company, Type in (all) your director (s) ID or passport number (s) and click the plus sign (+) after each director.

After you’ve captured all of them click the CONTINUE button.

Entering all director details

Step #2: Add the incorporator

Now you need to choose an INCORPORATOR.

What is THAT? You ask.

An incorporator is a person who registers a company but is not necessarily a director in the company.

At least one director you entered on the previous page can be appointed as both director and incorporator.

But remember:

You can also appoint an incorporator that is not a director.

If you want to do that, click on the ADD NEW INCORPORATOR below.

For example:

I am the director of this company (Darkie Group) I am registering. But I am also an incorporator (I am registering the company).

So I don’t need to add a new incorporator. All I have to do is to click CONTINUE.

Adding an incorporator

Step #3: Capture Director’s Details

In the next step, you’ll capture director’s full details.

Click on edit (as shown in the screenshot below) to capture each of the director’s details. It’s important to note that Directors cannot share email addresses and cell phone numbers.<

Editing Director Details

The first thing is to choose the director type.

There are three options:

Director

This is a director who will be an employee of the company and be part of the day-to-day operations. This person has a specified decision-making role as director. E.g. Managing director, director of finance, marketing, operations e.t.c Read more here

Non—Executive director

A Non-executive director is NOT an employee of the company and does not take part in the day-to-day management. He or she is usually involved in planning and policy-making and is sometimes included to lend status or prestige to the firm due to his or her standing in the community. Read more here

Alternate Director

An alternate directory is a Director available to the company temporarily, to stand for an elected director at a meeting of the board of directors. The alternate director can only go to such meetings if the company (1) MOI (memorandum of incorporation) allow such an arrangement and (2) other elected directors of the firm do not object. Read more here

Now you’ve got a better understanding of the different directors.

Choose the Director you’re editing on the DIRECTOR TYPE field.

Fill in all the required details as shown below:

Surname and name,

Country of origin,

ID/Passport number,

Director status,

Appointment date (date appointed as a director of the company),

Date of birth and cellphone number,

Email, physical and postal address.

company registration: adding details of a new director

If you’re also an incorporator of the company, choose yes and click SAVE to save the director’s details.

options if a director is also an incorporator

Once you’ve saved the details, you will then see all the details captured (as shown on the screen below).

Click CONTINUE

director/ incorporators details captured

Step #4: Capture Company Details

The next thing to do is to capture company details.

The first thing you have to choose the Financial Year End of the company.

But what is this financial year end I am talking about?

Great question!

Financial year end is an accounting period that can start on any day of a calendar year but has twelve consecutive months (52 consecutive weeks) at the end of which account books are closed, profit or loss is computed, and financial reports are prepared for filing. source

For example:

I chose February as a financial year end for the Darkie Group. That means the company’s accounting period will be from 1st March of this year to 28 February of the following year.

Remember: you can choose any other month

Now choose the number of AUTHORISED SHARES.

And I hear you asking:

What are authorised shares?

Authorised Shares are the shares of stock a company can issue to its shareholders. At first, the number will be specified in the MOI but it can be changed later. Authorised shares are all the shares that have been created in a company.

Once the shares are issued to shareholders, they become issued shares. Therefore, to be validly issued, the shares must first have been created or authorised.

“The number of authorised shares is set out in a company’s memorandum of incorporation. In order to issue authorised shares, the board of directors of the company must pass a resolution to that effect. The new shareholder is then entered into the company’s register of members, and the company creates a share certificate evidencing the issue, and gives it to the new shareholder. The issue must also be entered into a separate register. A company’s memorandum of incorporation may set out additional requirements for issuing shares.”

I hope that made things clear about the authorized shares.

Back to where we were…

Now enter all the required company details:

E-mail and website address,

Company physical address,

And postal address

And click SAVE.

capturing compnay details

Now you will be presented with three options for name reservation, namely:

Apply for a name as part of this process;

Use a name that has already been approved;

Register a company using an enterprise number as the name.

In this step, we will use option 2 as we already have a name that is approved.

Click on USE A NAME THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN APPROVED.

step for name reservation

Enter your reservation number (tracking reference number you received via your email) and click CONTINUE.

Once you click continue, you will then be presented with company and director details.

Check if the details are correct, and click on MODIFY COMPANY DETAILS if you need to edit either the company details or the director details.

If everything is correct, click on LODGE COMPANY.

details to confirm before you register a company

The screen below will be shown if your company registration has been filed.

confirmation the a company has been registered

And boom! Your company registration has been filed

The Final Step for Company Registration

Wait…

You are not done yet. You need to send supporting documentation to complete the process

You will get an email from CIPC, indicating the required supporting documentation.

an email confirming company registration

The email will have an attached form for all directors and incorporators to sign.

Print the e-mailed forms and have indicated directors and incorporators sign at the indicated placed.

After all, directors have signed it, scan and send back to eServicesCoReg@cipc.co.za, together with your certified ID copy and all directors certified ID copies.

Use the tracking number you’ve been provided in the subject field of your email

As per the CIPC email, The application must be finalised within 31 calendar days from the date of lodgement. Therefore, all forms and supporting documents (with fees paid) MUST be lodged within 10 calendar days from the date of lodgement. If you fail to do so, the application to register your company might be registered.

That’s it.

Here’s The Next Step…

Now I want to turn it over to you:

Which of the steps outlined above do you find confusing?

Or do you have any other question about company registration?

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now. [ratings]